The shockwaves felt after Britain voted to leave the European Union are set to have a dramatic impact on the transfer fees splashed out by cash-rich Premier League clubs for leading European players.
One question is whether players like French Manchester United target Paul Pogba would be eligible to play in Europe’s most high-profile and competitive league, given that talks on Britain remaining in the single market could drag on for at least two years.
More immediately, the decline in the value of the pound will make transfer targets more difficult to acquire.
 
Foreign players more expensive
“If the pound continues to fall, then foreign talent will become more expensive. That could have a huge knock-on effect in the summer transfer window,” Simon Chadwick, professor of sports enterprise at the University of Salford, told The Times.
While fluctuations in the exchange rate shouldn’t unduly concern the wealthiest clubs such as Manchester City and cross-town rivals United, the mid-level Premier League teams will notice a difference.
 Even with cash from a new record television deal coming in, a bid of £10mn (12.1mn euros, $13.4mn) for a European player rose by as much as £900,000 in the past two days, due to the slump in the pound’s value against the euro.
West Ham’s largest shareholder David Sullivan — whose club had before Thursday’s shock vote made a 40-million euro offer for Marseille’s Belgian international striker Michy Batshuayi — reflected this concern. “There are going to be a lot of implications for the Premier League and football in general,” he wrote on the club website.
“If... sterling continues to fall against the euro, players at European clubs will become more expensive as that impacts our buying power.
“Even at this present time, where we currently owe instalments to clubs who we have signed players from, we will also lose out if the value of sterling falls, but every club is in the same boat.”
Aside from transfer fees, European-based players may also demand higher salaries due to their euro expectations.
“The Premier League is always going to be a net importer. It depends now on whether the transfer fee is paid in pounds or whether it is paid in euros,” Daniel Geey, from sports law firm Sheridans, told the Daily Mail.
“Likewise with wages for European players, they could be paid as a guaranteed mark in euros and then converted into pounds afterwards.”
There are differing opinions over whether remaining in Europe’s single market — which usually requires that a country allows freedom of movement — would be a blessing, or — as leading Brexiteer Michaael Gove feels — it is better to try one’s luck outside it.
If Britain left the single market, players coming in would have to meet stringent rules for non-EU players — who must have played in a certain percentage of their national team’s matches. Gaining a British work permit would also depend on their country’s FIFA ranking over the previous two years.
If the non-EU rule was imposed, over 400 players plying their trade in the top two leagues in both Scotland and England would fail to meet the requirements.Among them, France’s star player at the Euro 2016 finals Dimitri Payet of West Ham and midfield enforcer N’Golo Kante, an integral player in Leicester’s fairytale Premier League title last season, would not have passed the test.
For some, not being in the single market would be a blessing, as it would allow young English talent a chance to shine more regularly at the elite league level rather than being loaned out to second tier teams to gain first team experience.
“Clubs will certainly need to consider their transfer targets and policies once the position becomes clearer over the coming years,” said Dan Lowen of sports law firm Couchmans.
“We can expect the Premier League to do all they can to encourage the government to make whatever changes are necessary to work permit rules, to ensure British clubs’ ability to sign top European talent is not diminished.”

Minnows grab slice of Champions League pie
It is barely a month since Real Madrid lifted the Champions League trophy, Euro 2016 is only now warming up and the rest of the continent’s footballers have their feet up at the beach. But Europe’s premier club competition revs up all over again this week with the first qualifying round, the opening salvos of a glamour tournament that will reach its denouement in Cardiff on June 3, 2017. Talk about the long road to Champions League glory. The opening qualifying round, a rare chance for Europe’s minnows to enjoy a tiny slice of Champions League glory, reads like a football trivia quiz book: Anyone for B36 Torshavn? (Answer: Faroe Islands). Or Alashkert? (Armenia). How about The New Saints?
The perennial Welsh Premier League winners, also known as TNS, host San Marino’s Tre Penne on Tuesday with the winner over two legs going up against relative heavyweights Apoel from Cyprus. TNS are based in the ancient English market town of Oswestry, on the border with Wales, and they hope to pack 2,000 fans into their tidy Park Hall Stadium for the clash with Tre Penne. It may be a world away from Milan’s San Siro, where more than 70,000 saw Real beat Madrid rivals Atletico on penalties in the May final, but make no mistake: livelihoods are at stake and ambition burns brightly. TNS boss Craig Harrison says that making it into the second round of qualifiers would be worth 700,000 euros ($780,000 or £570,000) to the club — enough to cover TNS financially for the season. “If we don’t get through it will be disappointing,” Harrison told AFP, saying that irrespective of the financial benefits, as players and coaches it is all about being involved in the Champions League, even if is at the lowest rung of the competition.
“To be involved in the best club competition in the world is still very important.”  Harrison, whose playing career involved stints with Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace, has not seen Tre Penne first hand but got his hands on recent footage of them and describes his club as “overwhelming favourites, though we are taking nothing for granted.”
It is not arrogance: UEFA’s coefficiency rankings, based on results in the last five years in Europe, put the Welsh side nearly 200 places higher than their San Marino rivals.

Emulating Shamrock
Their achievements might seem trivial by the standards of Europe’s elite, but TNS have a history of modest success in Europe that they are proud of and determined to improve on. Their Champions League experience over the past decade includes a respectable 6-0 defeat over two qualifying legs in 2005 to Liverpool, then the reigning champions, and they reached the third qualifying round in 2010 before going down to Anderlecht. Making it as far as the group stages of the competition for the first time is almost certainly out of the question. But Harrison hopes TNS can spring a surprise and get into the group stages of the Europa League, the ugly sister competition of the Champions League which teams tumble into after failing in the Champions League. Harrison takes inspiration from Shamrock Rovers, the Irish side which went on a fairytale run into the Europa League group stage in 2011, facing the likes of Premier League Tottenham. It is proof that for TNS, Tre Penne and the rest setting out in the Champions League qualifiers the big boys of Europe are within sniffing distance. TNS were back in training less than three weeks after winning the Welsh Cup on May 2, making it a severely curtailed summer for the coaching staff and players, who are full-time professionals. Not that anyone is complaining. “It’s habit now,” said Harrison. “It’s five years now that it’s been like this. To be involved in the Champions League, it’s a small sacrifice to make.”
The other first qualifying round games are Flora Tallinn (Estonia) vs Lincoln (Gibraltar), Valletta (Malta) vs B36 Torshavn and Santa Coloma (Andorra) vs Alashkert. The second legs are on July 5-6.